Bishops Support Minimum Wage Hike

Bishops Support Minimum Wage Hike

U.S. Catholic leaders have called on Congress to ensure that the federal minimum wage is raised to “improve the financial security of millions of American families.” In a letter, dated July 28, Bishop Thomas Wenski, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Sister Donna Markham, President of Catholic Charities USA, note that a full-time worker, currently earning the federal minimum wage, “does not make enough to raise a child free from poverty.” As pastors and service providers, they say they see how each year “it becomes more difficult for low-wage workers to make ends meet.” Quoting from Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Centesimus Annus,” they stress that society and the state must guarantee wage levels “adequate for the maintenance of the worker and his family,” as well as ensuring “adequate legislative measures” to stop exploitation of the most vulnerable. Protecting low-wage workers and promoting their ability to form and nurture families, the two Catholic leaders insist, are shared responsibilities and critical to building a more equitable society.

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Richard Booth

2 years 5 months ago

No comments until now? No surprise. What are these men in robes supposed to say - Don't raise the minimum wage? They like high ratings, too. But, at least they did something rather than nothing, which, in my view, is out of the ordinary for them.

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This article also appeared in print, under the headline "Bishops Support Minimum Wage Hike," in the August 17-24, 2015 issue.

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